"Ma Tshaweh Tabeatak" Campaign

As a response to the fires that took place in 2007, the Prime Minister Fouad Saniora established the National Committee to Combat Forest Fires. Following, AFDC launched the National Campaign "El Harka Bil Aleb" in collaboration with the Ministry of Environment through a Memorandum of Understanding, signed with the Ministry of Environment, and approved by the Council of Ministries on the 27th of October 2007 under decree number 138. The campaign includes 3 components:

- Prevention against forest fires

- Intervention measures in forest fire fighting

- Restoration of lands after fires.

Currently, AFDC is working with its partners in the National Committee to Combat Forest Fires to develop the national strategy to manage forest fires which will involve all concerned ministries and local authorities in sensitive forest areas in Lebanon.

This year, AFDC is launching a campaign entitled: "Ma Tshaweh Tabeatak ما تشوه طبيعتك" to complement the first campaign aiming at raising awareness about forest fire prevention and forest conservation. In addition, and through this campaign, AFDC aims at encouraging individuals and institutions from the private and the public sector to contribute to the national efforts to provide forest firefighting equipment and to restore burnt lands. It is worthy to note that during the previous reforestation season, only 150 ha were planted versus 1500 ha lost in one day during October 2007.

Campaign's major achievements for 2007-2008:

- Unifying the collection of information about forest fires among the concerned entities by developing a common ID card for forest fires.

- Establishing a common operations room between civil defense and army with the support of the Ministry of Environment, Ministry of Agriculture and AFDC based at the Civil Defense main Center in Beirut.

- Providing 3 small fire trucks for early intervention, and currently in the process of providing 6 additional fire trucks to the civil defense in sensitive forest areas in Lebanon.

- Training of 450 members of the civil defense, forest guards, army and volunteers on forest fire fighting and equipping them with the necessary equipment for early intervention in forest fire fighting which includes GPS, computers, forest fire fighting uniforms, manual tool kits etc.

- Restoring 130 hectares of affected sites throughout Lebanon.

- Establishing a tree nursery in the South and in the Chouf and in the process of establishing a tree nursery in the North of Lebanon.

- Issuing the first "State of Lebanon's Forests 2007" report.

- Organizing an international conference to develop a national plan for integrated management of forest fires.

- Implementing an awareness campaign that targeted private and public schools as well as universities in collaboration with the Ministry of Education.

Below are some useful links:

- Dedicated Bank Account: 4752103787001 (for contributions in Lebanese Liras), 4752103787002 (for contributions in U.S. Dollars) - Byblos Bank all branches.

- Dedicated hot line: 1267

- Direct contact with AFDC  01/752670 

- Website and email: www.afdc.org.lb & afdc@afdc.org.lb

AFDC Planned activities for 2008-2009:

- Disseminating up-to-date forest related incidents and events in a friendly user manner that will be publicly published through AFDC webpage.

- Launching and operating the operations room throughout the year and more precisely during forest fires season.

- Working with all concerned entities and mainly the Ministry of Interior to provide fire trucks for all villages within the high risk areas. The first objective will be to provide 50 fire trucks.

- Training of 500 members of the civil defense, forest guards, army and volunteers on forest fire fighting and equipping them with the necessary equipment for early intervention in forest fire fighting which includes GPS, computers, forest fire fighting uniforms, manual tool kits etc.

- Restoring 200 hectares of affected sites throughout Lebanon.

- Establishing a tree nursery in North capable of producing 100,000 seedlings a year.

- Updating researches finding on State of Lebanon's report in the process of issuing a new version in 2010.

- Organizing an international donors meeting to fund and support forest fire related project.

- Pushing towards implementing the developed national strategy.

- Implementing an awareness campaign that targets private and public schools as well as universities in collaboration with the Ministry of Education.

- Implementing an awareness campaign in forest sensitive areas (around 100 villages all over Lebanon)

- Launching of the pioneer forest fires early detection sensors in collaboration with AUB.

- Assessing 5 areas in Lebanon with the purpose of establishing forest fire fighting infrastructure that includes: fire breaks, water ponds, water tanks, water outlets etc.

Contributors:

AFDC would like to thank all of the people (individuals and institutions) that have shown interest in "Ma Tshaweh Tabeatak" campaign. We would like to thank in particular all the following persons and institutions that have contributed until now to this campaign. Thanks to your contribution we can all breathe a little better...

- Institutions:

Grey Worldwide

Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO)

Lebanese Recovery Fund (LRF)

Italian Cooperations

- Names of donors for 2007-2008:

Bahaa Al Deen Hariry School

Eli Lilly Pharmaceuticals

Le Royal

Green Lebanon

Le Meridien

Dunkin Donuts

Mednet

Byblos

Bankers Assurance

Medtronic

- Names of donors for 2008-2009:

ELCIM

Capital Outsourcing

Amatoury

Timberland

Bankers Assurance

Starbucks

eSharing

European Union